Asheville, NC - A city police officer now faces three charges in connection with the abuse of a 3-year-old on Halloween.

The Buncombe County District Attorney's Office requested police charge Aubrey Gerrard Green with assault on a child under 12 and a second count of misdemeanor child abuse.

The 27-year-old officer was originally charged with one count of misdemeanor child abuse on Nov. 9.

He is accused of causing physical injury by striking the child buttocks hard enough to cause "significant bruising" on Oct. 31, according to an arrest warrant.

The second child abuse charge came for failing to report the incident, police said.

Green has been on paid administrative leave since Nov. 9. He is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 4. All three charges are misdemeanors.

The Police Department has not released an incident report in the case because an internal investigation is under way.

Incident reports are generally made available in criminal cases.

The child's mother is also facing a misdemeanor child abuse charge. Maggie Nicole Jones, 22, was charged because she allowed Green to inflict the injury, according to an arrest warrant. Green is not the child's father.

He joined the department in December 2007 and works as a patrol officer assigned to West Asheville.